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Running PPC for Law Firms

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PPC for Law Firms

It’s no secret that PPC for law firms is costly. The cost for running a successful campaign is not something that can be taken lightly by your leadership team. Over the years, I have seen the mismanagement of PPC campaigns in numerous industries, but the legal field tops my list.

Why is that?

I think it’s pretty easy to explain actually.

You’re an attorney, not a marketer.

Here is what I mean by that. The sales pitches given to you are often by salesmen that only know the psychology of sales, not necessarily the service they are pitching.

I have clients that receive phone calls often stating that their campaigns are being “mismanaged” as part of the sales pitch to switch companies. So what does that pitch lead to? It leads to me receiving a phone call or email letting me know that Company X called.

That’s it.

The reason that the conversation goes know where is that my client is educated to a certain degree on what we are doing, why we are doing it, and how. We are transparent. There is no ambiguity on how their accounts are being managed.

In my opinion, doing business this way is key when dealing with attorneys strictly because the cost of them doing business is already expensive enough.

So back to my statement from earlier. You’re an attorney, not a marketer. The psychology of a sale to an attorney is to make them feel as if they are missing out on something. Not to educate and implement strategy in a partnership with one another.

Salesmen know that you do not necessarily want to know a damn thing about marketing, but you do want to know how your law firm is going to make more money with marketing. With that said, let’s look at some things you should have in your tool box in terms of your PPC.

Before and during any potential engagement, these are a few of the things you should be able to start an informed conversation the next time you receive a sales call are meeting with your marketing team.

PPC Conversion Goals for Law Firms

Conversion goals for PPC should be very clear for law firms. Get potential clients in front of you physically or remotely for a consultation. Keep in mind that this will not be accomplished by the old school way of marketing and conversion.

I suggest the use of tracking numbers to assist you in your overall conversion strategy. Although I would prefer to talk directly to an attorney via the telephone, we must remember the one other feature our phones now have.

The ability to text.

Yes, this is a PPC trackable conversion and you must be aware of its availability. You have to keep your audience in mind. In listening to hundreds of calls to and from law offices, there have been times when potential clients ask directly for the ability to text appointment times or ask general questions.

Now, yes, I fully understand that there is fine line with providing advice or consultation and I understand your receptionist is not an attorney. This does not mean that there cannot be room to add text messaging into your PPC campaign.

The key is going to be defining in very clear terms what can and cannot be delivered via text. You can still guide an appointment via text, but again, you and your team must remain compliant within a clearly defined set of standards.

Bottom line, make sure that you at least have a discussion regarding text messaging features to your marketing and conversion strategy.

PPC Ad Copy for Lawyers

Writing ad copy for lawyers can be a challenge if you are attempting to group lawyers in with everyone else. Ad copy for a lawyer will not mirror that of a florist or dentist. Attorney’s provide a very different set of challenges.

This guide will give you a run-down of rules that apply to each state. The biggest takeaway here is that your ads must not be “misleading” in nature. This is also where you can find out if the example I provided regarding text messaging is legal in your state.

Remember that just because Google provides it, does not mean we can just use it without consequence.

Make sure that you have your team review any ads created by your marketing team. Keep in mind that although it is your marketing teams job to create your ads, you will ultimately be held accountable in the end.

Just another reason to have access to your own AdWords account as a law firm.

PPC Landing Pages

Let’s keep the focus now on improving conversion. Landing pages are an integral part to your PPC and SEO marketing. When done correctly, you can actually use the same landing page for both SEO and PPC.

I mentioned directing some of your Sitelink and Structured Snippet extensions to specific pages. The problem with that recommendation is that most law firm blogs are not as robust nor focused on their client as they should be.

For example, although your law degree from a “Top 10 University” could play an important part in me choosing you to represent me, but what do you know about this DUI issue I’m having, or how should I plan visitation rights with my child?

Create content based landing pages that provide your audience help and answer a few of their most pressing questions. If you live off of referrals only, then having a light website may work for you. I am assuming that you are here reading about PPC for lawyers because you want to see your campaigns improve.

If that is the case, I am telling you right now to sit down and start developing at least 3 pieces of content that speak to problems your potential clients are searching for online.

Not only will your CTR improve but so will your Conversions.

Turn a Negative into a Positive

There are two pieces to your PPC campaign that are often overlooked. If you look on your dashboard and select “keywords” you will see that a section for “negative keywords” and “search terms” will appear.

Over time, you may find that these two sections are going to be of great value to your PPC budget.

For example, let’s say you are a Bankruptcy Attorney and you keep showing up for Personal Injury. You get frustrated because the calls you are receiving are not only of zero value to you, but now you’re eating up your budget.

I bet money if you look in your “search terms” section, you will find that you are showing up for Personal Injury keywords or law firms that specialize in other areas. This is where you find these keywords and add them to your “negative keywords” list.

This is one of those small tweaks that can optimize your PPC campaign.

I suggest this be a weekly check in or sooner if you have the staff.

The last thing you want to do is mismanage your marketing budget on clients you have zero intention of assisting.